White light enveloped Hobbes and ditto, until all I could see were their silhouettes joined together by the splicer. The two white silhouettes slowly got brighter as their outlines merged, meeting in the middle to form a new, single silhouette. The edges danced, wobbling in different forms as if deciding how to fuse the pokemon together, and my heart leapt into my throat.

If the fusion was going to fail, this was when it would happen. Intellectually, I knew they would be fine -- but it was much harder to believe that in my heart. I held my breath as the fusion continued.

The light intensified, getting brighter and brighter. I tried to keep watching, but eventually was forced to hold my hand up in front of my eyes. Even then, the light was too bright, and I shut my eyes and looked away.

Until there was a soft clinking noise, and all the light faded.

I opened my eyes and blinked away tears, trying to adjust to the sudden dimness. All I could see were spots.

"Hobbes?" I called.

"Di?" I heard in response -- and finally, my eyes adjusted, revealing the single pokemon before me.

At first, I thought the fusion had somehow failed. Hobbes' disguise sat on the grass, identical to how it looked prior to the fusion -- but there was no sign of ditto, so I assumed something worked.

"Hobbes? Is that you?" I asked again.

And then two dark purple claws reached out from under the disguise, and I stumbled backward in surprise. Only for the two tentacle-y claws to catch me before I could fall, pulling the disguise in close for a hug. "Di! Dimikyu!" Hobbes called, and I hugged the pokemon back in relief.

"You're okay! Does this mean...? Can you remove your disguise?" I asked after a moment of simply enjoying my pokemon's presence.

"Kyu?" Hobbes replied, releasing me from his purple claws and backing away. The disguise undulated, as if whatever was underneath the disguise was attempting to escape, before Hobbes' sad voice echoed up to me again as he shook his head. "Di..."

"Don't worry! That wasn't what we were counting on, anyway."

"Di!" Hobbes voice responded as he perked up.

"Are you ready?" I asked, and Hobbes gave me a confident nod. I took a small step back, pointed to myself, and called out in my best 'pokemon trainer' voice. "Hobbes! Use transform!"

Once again, white light enveloped Hobbes, though this time it was thankfully less bright than when he'd fused. And then the light dimmed, revealing his attempted transformation into a copy of me.

I tried -- and failed -- to hide my grimace.

It was better than the ditto's attempt to transform into me. As I'd hoped, it seemed some of Hobbes' practice with mimic carried over into understanding of transform. Or, it was entirely possible that the original ditto simply wasn't that smart, and this was just a sign of Hobbes' higher intelligence.

I wasn't going to suggest that out loud, though. Even though, to me, Hobbes appeared to only be a slightly modified mimikyu, I knew the recently captured ditto was just as much a part of my new pokemon as Hobbes was.

No, the problem with Hobbes' transformation wasn't in the size or proportions, as the ditto had struggled with. This new form stood at my exact height, with arms, legs, and a head that more or less matched up with mine.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

The issue was that Hobbes seemed to bring his disguise with him into the transformation.

Rather than as a human, Hobbes stood before me as a scarecrow: a puppet-like simulacrum of humanity. His eyes were buttons. His mouth, a stitched-on smile. I could see the seams that held him together at each of his joints. And in the opening at the ends of his long sleeves and pant legs, I could catch glimpses of the purple darkness that comprised his true body.

A small purple tentacle extended out from the neck of the scarecrow's clothes, and I caught a glimpse of a small, dark eye looking down at Hobbes' human-transformed body. And then with a mournful cry, Hobbes turned and ran into the grass of the field around us.

"Hobbes!" I called before dashing after my pokemon -- but he was gone.

----------------------------------------

It took fifteen minutes of wandering before I finally tracked down my pokemon. Hobbes sat at the top of a hill that overlooked the fields around us, grass swaying in the gentle breeze. The sun had well and truly set by this point, the last light of the sun only barely enough for me to see his form. He no longer looked like a scarecrow mimicry of humanity; rather, he looked like a stuffed doll of a diglett, a brown bag with sewn-on eyes and fake mud along the sides. A mimicry of another pokemon rather than a mimicry of humanity.

That had been Hobbes' dream. The dream of all mimikyus, if my recollections of pokedex entries of a previous life were to be believed -- to be seen and to be loved. It was why we had chased down a ditto fusion for him: of all the pokemon, it was the one I thought had the best chance of overriding his previous' body's limitation of killing whoever looked upon it.

Yet now, it seemed even worse. Rather than being trapped in the self-imposed isolation of his disguise, it now seemed as if his disguise was permanently fused with his form -- regardless of which form he took. Even as his body shifted, taking on the likeness, moves, and abilities of whoever he copied, the disguise followed. A permanent separation between him and everyone else.

I sat down on the hill next to him and looked out over the grass.

Around us, the light dimmed further until I could see no more than a few feet in any direction. Off in the distance I could see Merraga, only a few lanterns marking the small town. Stars appeared in the sky, and a sliver of a moon rose over the edge of the nearby mountains.

"Can you keep a secret?" I finally asked some twenty minutes of silence later.

"...di..."

"Do you know the ugliest pokemon I've ever seen?"

For the first time, the diglett-mimicry looked at me in confusion, surprised by the non-sequitor. But after a moment more of silence, Hobbes seemed to realize it was a serious question and responded. "Kyu, kyu?"

I shivered, and then chuckled. "No, it wasn't the Mr. Ditto. That was the scariest pokemon I've ever seen, not the ugliest. Thank you for the reminder, though, and for the nightmares I'll be having tonight."

Hobbes gave a trilling chuckle that faded after only a second.

"No, the ugliest pokemon I've ever seen is also a fusion: a fusion of gloom and crobat."

Hobbes rapidly turned to face me with incredulity. I chuckled -- it was a comfort that, even after the fusion, in the dark and while transformed, I could still read my friend's expressions under his disguise.

"I'm serious. Objectively, Kisses is the ugliest pokemon I've ever seen. But, here's another question: who do you think is my second favorite all-time pokemon?"

"...kyu?"

I nodded with a small smile. "That's right -- Kisses." I reached out and grabbed Hobbes' small form, pulling him closer into a side hug. "His appearance has no bearing on that ranking. And neither does it have any bearing on my all-time favorite pokemon." I picked up Hobbes and set him on my lap, looking directly at where I knew his eyes were hidden underneath the disguise. "I wanted to be able to see you face-to-face because that was what you wanted. Because I knew it was a dream of yours. But don't you dare think for a second that it would have changed how I think of you."

"Di..."

I leaned forward with my head against the top of his diglett disguise and closed my eyes. "You're my best friend. Whether I see you face-to-face or not won't change that. Whether or not we get separated and have to spend years apart won't change that. Whether you become the most powerful pokemon in existence or decide you never want to battle again won't change that." I leaned back and gave a firm nod. "So you're just going to have to get used to it."

"...kyu."

I lay back into the grass as Hobbes, still on my stomach, transformed back into his default body. I didn't bother to search for my bag, left behind at the site of the fusion. I didn't worry about setting up my hammock or eating a late dinner.

I simply lay back and watched the stars with my best friend.